The Judges

The judging committee included: Sami F. Bahrawi, Jeddah Economic Forum Chairman 2007 and member of the board of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry; Rami S. Abu Ghazaleh CEO of Al Baik Food Systems; Olfat Qabbani, member of the board of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Amin El Maghraby , President & CEO of Magrabi Optical Company; Rola Badkook, General Manager of Badkok Group and Fayyad Obeid, General Manager of Al Baik Food Systems.

The winning finalists

The Jeddah Economic Forum Collegiate Business Venture Award 2007 top 10 finalists have been selected from over 55 applications that have been received from across the region.

A warm congratulations to the winning team from the American University of Sharjah, Bedriyah Al Saeed and her team (which included: Ali Hashem Shekofti, Claudia Fermazi, Fatima Quraishi and Noha Pancha) presented a business plan on Al Saree3 – a door to door delivery service that will begin in Jeddah and expand regionally. AUS participating team was under the supervision of Mr. Ali Khawaja.

The first runner up, a team from the College of Business and Administration in Jeddah, Sondos Bawazeer and her team (Shumaila Jaffrey and Buthaina Albaity) presented the SWIFT business plan - a Student Women Initiative for Technology.

From Jeddah, Saudi Arabia Ahmed & Asma Mahayri from King Abdulaziz University presented a business plant titled the Middle East Innovators, and were selected as the third place winners.

The fourth finalist a group from CBA Fatima Gardezi and Hiba Ali presented a Public Transport System for Women, the team was supervised by Qurratulain Sikander – Head of the Marketing Department. From Dar Al Hekma Amena Syed presented a business plan on Mughal Catering. From Effat College Hudabia Tariq presented a business plan on an expansion opportunity for Toni & Guy in Saudi Arabia.

From the American University of Beirut the student Elias Njeim presented a business plan on EKN – Engineering Consulting Company. From Aleppo three finalists were selected: Hazem Arab presented a restaurant expansion business plan, Rami Al Esawi presented a business plan on a retain concept called BEETO and Yusuf Makhlouf presented a business plan on Financial and Exchange Center.

Congratulations to them all.. :)

Deadlines..

Dear readers,

We have been getting many comments on how tight the time has been for everyone to participate and submit their work for this competition, unfortunately this year the timing has been very critical what with finals and midyear breaks in most universities, a lot of students are afraid they wont be able to make the deadlines we have assigned, and have requested extensions of it and we would have loved to comply, but keeping in mind that the forum is to be held on the 24th till the 27th of February 2007, this makes matters complicated if the winner were to be from a country other than Saudi Arabia or the Gulf, traveling arrangements and visa issues must be taken into consideration therefore the deadline has been stretched to its limit as it is.
We are sure that for the most part its putting everyone under pressure, yet there have been a number of submissions so far, just keep in mind that you can accomplish anything that you put your mind to, remember that famous saying: "Where there is a will, there is a way"
Good luck everyone..

Al Yamamah College

Last Tuesday we went to visit Al Yamamah College for women in Riyadh.. Students expressed their keen interest in participating in the JEF Collegiate Business Venture Award 2007. In their first year, Al Yamamah College opened officially in 2006, the students were ready to take part and show their skills in preparing business plans.
Wishing them all the bestand we look forward to seeing their work.

GOING REGIONAL

This week we will be going on our regional road shows, starting off with 8 visits to different universities in Syria, as well as meeting with students from the American University of Beirut (AUB), and the Lebanese American University (LAU) in Lebanon.
Also we will be visiting the American University of Sharja in the UAE, and then finally a briefing session will be held with participating students from Oman.